May 8, 2017

Today we celebrate:

No Socks Day - This is another fun day that some unknown person(s) created. Just as the name suggests, remove those socks today and let your toes live free.

National Have a Coke Day - A popular carbonated beverage that you can use for drinking, cooking, and even cleaning...although I don’t like to think of that. Who wants to drink something they clean with, well I suppose water would fall into the category of beverages used to clean with. So I guess that’s ok then.

World Ovarian Cancer Day - This is a disease that the average man doesn’t have to think about too much, but it is one that almost every woman needs to know about. The survival rate for this cancer is pretty low, mostly because it is so hard to detect so it doesn’t get diagnosed early enough to give women a fighting chance to overcome it. The first time this day was celebrated was on the day in 2013 so it is relatively new, but the cancer it is striving to educate women about has been killing women for many years. Find out what you need to watch for.

World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day - Originally called Red Cross Day when it was created and first celebrated on this day in 1948, this day did some evolving in the years since and acquired its’ present name in 1984. The Red Cross is dedicated to preventing disease and preventing war with the theory that if those two things are not involved, then the Red Cross won’t have to step in and help the sick and injured/displaced. I don’t think that the Red Cross thinks that if the world is a peaceful one, they won’t be needed. We will always have a need for them because of the natural disasters that happen all around the world from time to time.

National Student Nurses Day - Celebrated on this day within National Nurses Week, this is a day to appreciate those special people who are learning how to become the nurses that we will depend upon for help with all manner of problems.

Iris Day – Irises are a beautiful flower named after the Greek Goddess of rainbows. Irises come in many different colors and if you see my father's house, you'll find many of them. There are 300 different species of Irises, which my father certainly doesn't have the space for, much to my mother's relief.

V-E Day – While the war in Europe officially ended on May 7th in the afternoon, when German General Jodl officially surrendered, Stalin disagreed with Churchill & Truman on how their victory should be announced so it was delayed until 7:40pm when Churchill had enough and announced what everyone already knew anyway by that time. He declared May 8th to be a holiday and people began celebrating and dancing in the streets until a thunderstorm ended the festivities. But they picked back up again first thing in the morning on this day in 1945. They pooled their rationed resources and had street parties all over England. On May 9th, the war effort resumed as we were still fighting Japan.

National Coconut Cream Pie Day – I'm not a fan of coconut but my husband is so I might have to make one of these for him today. Here’s a recipe you can try.

Time Of Remembrance & Reconciliation For Those Who Lost Their Lives During The Second World War – This day is celebrated today and tomorrow. It was created by the United Nations in 2004 and it urges all United Nations Countries to pay tribute to all the victims of World War II. This is the day chosen for celebration because this is the day that Adolf Hitler's Third Reich officially ended.

National Meeting Planners Appreciation Day - Celebrated on Monday of the first full week in May, this is a day to recognize that important meetings and conventions wouldn’t happen without someone to plan them. I know that for many of us, meetings are the bane of our existence. We certainly have a lot of them. For some of us, going from one meeting to the next all day long, is the way we live day to day. That is probably a little too much. But some of those meetings are probably important so make sure you thank the person who planned them. Speaking of meetings, someone needs to plan a family meeting so we can figure out how to get Great Aunt Ginny to stop hanging her neon colored underwear in the bay window for the world to see.

Great Lakes Awareness Day - Also celebrated on the Monday of the first full week in May, today is a day to become aware of the natural phenomenon called the Great Lakes. Perhaps you are saying, aren’t all lakes great? And you would be right. All lakes are great for boating, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, jet skiing, etc. But perhaps you are not aware that some lakes are greater than others. We have, right in this country...near the top if you don’t have a map in front of you...5 bodies of water that are seriously Great Lakes. Now don’t get too excited, because we share four of them with Canada, so they are not all ours. These five are the greatest of the great lakes and I can even name them for you in order of biggest to smallest...not because I went to public school and memorized them, although I did, but because my children taught me how to use google, whereupon I realized that although I remembered all the names, I did not remember how big they are. So we have Lake Superior, aptly named since it is the biggest and therefore the most superior; Lake Huron, do they have a lot of herons on Huron?; Lake Michigan, bet you can’t guess what state it resides in; Lake Erie, did you know there was an Erie tribe of Native Americans who lived there at one time?; and Lake Ontario, which connects us to Ontario in Canada...I bet you didn’t know that. Did you also know that the Niagara Falls lie along the river connecting Lake Erie to Lake Ontario?